The third annual MD4 Utah Summit held in close partnership with the Intermountain Biomedical Association on Thursday, November 8, 2012 at The Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. Last year’s summit attracted nearly 400 registrants, and was the largest life science-only event held in Utah. 

This year’s agenda will again feature world-class keynote speakers from the medical device, diagnostics, biotech and pharma arenas. The event will focus on the current and potential direction of the FDA, the progress of the Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership, and other leading opportunities and challenges facing the state’s life science organizations and community. To register, click here.

The format of this year's summit will be to altered and the conference will be a single-day event instead of taking place over separate days as was done in the past. This event will also serve as the launch of Utah’s new independent  life science industry association.

Presenting sponsors of the 2012 Utah Life Science Summit are, MD4 Utah, IBA, the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the Emerging Growth Company Council and the Utah Technology Council (UTC).

Kimball Thomson, executive director of MD4 Utah, an organization to increase the economic impact of Utah’s life science sector/ industries, and incoming CEO of the new Utah life science association said, “We are honored to collaborate with IBA, UTC, and AdvaMed to celebrate and accelerate the promise and growing critical mass of Utah’s life science community. The 2012 Summit will be a rare opportunity to actively participate in the creation of genuine life science history in Utah.”

The Summit will include hands-on workshops and interactive panel discussions, as well as plentiful opportunities for networking with hundreds of top life science state and national leaders.

Highlights of the event include a keynote address from Leroy Hood, a biologist who co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology and the P4 Medicine Institute. In 2011 Hood won the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.” His inventions include the automated DNA sequencer and an automated tool for synthesizing DNA.

The Utah life science sector, a $14.6 billion industry provides more than 63,000 Utah jobs. Average annual wages are more than 50 percent greater than those of the private sector, as reported in the Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership (UCAP) Life Science Report, which was released in August 2012. The Summit will highlight the efforts of leaders in Utah’s education, business, and government communities to develop the growth in the state’s life science arena. The potential economic advantages for Utah in actively develop its life science sector include significant job creation and attracting promising companies to Utah.

“Utah has strategically pursued the growth and expansion of the Utah life sciences to provide our community with sustained opportunities and economic stability that provide a path for continued development and scalability," said Peter Knauer, chairman of IBA.  “It is critical that we collectively use our resources to maximize and elevate the Utah life sciences.”